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July 6th-10th, Yes Trek Days -4
thru 0
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we advance we
retrace our story
I left our home in northwestern Ohio
with my lovely husband, Jonh, and our four children, Alanna, Damien,
Adrian and Liam, on a four-hour drive to Union Station in Chicago. I
wistfully deposited them on a train to California, where we would
reunite two weeks later at the home of Wendy & Curt Vig for our
drive home. It was far more hard than I'd imagined to leave and be
away from my family, for despite all the subsequent fun, my heart
ached the whole while.
I then began a valiant effort to be
myself and take and give pleasure in the company of Yesfriends. Paul
Pettengill lives in the Chicago area, and he had invited me to stay
with him for the days leading up to Yann Clochec's arrival in
Columbus, Ohio. I pulled in around dinnertime to find to my delight
he had carried in a fabulous Indian dinner of samosas and curries and
chutnies and pulao rice, complimented by a new wine to me, the
heavenly-sweet California Gewürztraminer.
paul before
gewürztraminer
paul after
gewürztraminer
Paul had offered to help me with a
recording I meant to present to Elizabeth Gips while in California.
(Some of you may remember that Elizabeth interviewed Jon Anderson
about fairies, ghosts, Vangelis and spirituality, in the spring of
1997, for her Bay Area radio show, "Changes." She and I began
corresponding when I wrote to ask her permission to post a transcript
of that interview.) She enjoyed a poem of mine I sent to her,
"Skydance," and had asked me to recite it on tape to play on her
radio show. Paul told me he'd written a guitar accompaniment to play
behind my recital, but he entirely surprised me by transforming the
poem into a whole song, replete with melody, harmonies, guitar and
supreme keys performed by a professional friend of his, Mark Gleed
(who is currently working on a project with Alan Holdsworth of UK
fame). Paul played for me the song he wrote for Wendy's poem, "I
Wish," then a few songs of his own, to get me accustomed to his
unique and sincere sound and style before treating me to the
new-improved, multi-dimensional, musical, cosmic "Skydance." Wow, was
I amazed. I was to play the song with pride to all the friends I made
on the trip out west and to my family after.
skydance
-- merry celeste
when i begin to reach for what right
is
i wonder, wander while
green trees tower taller
the sky grows deeper,
receding
like the other's eyes do the more
you stare
the ground below goes softer,
yielding.
but my feet are sure
and i am leaving uneven footprints
as i dance along singing.
i remember
that suddenly while i was
looking
at you
strange clouds came out of
nowhere
and a shower of emotion rained
down.
before i know
my steps become
each a reflecting pool
to remind the sky
how wonderfully blue it is.
the sun can and moon can,
each star can see itself
many, many times across the
next
day and night
in these mirrors left behind
by the roving gesture of my
joy.
I was tired the first night, having
endured the emotion that flowed from the wrenching away of my family,
and also exhausted from the 5-hour drive. But in my exhilaration I
agreed we should have Paul's friend and Vangelis authority, Brad
Merriman, come by and give us a slide presentation. He had an
incredible show of images from the Going for the One and Relayer eras
that really brought back the memories of being at these concerts. I
hope that at some point he will make them available to Yesfans
everywhere, because they are just too amazing to miss. They transport
you back, take you there, front row. Brad also brought along his
collection of Vangelis recordings and treated us to the same while
sharing with us his vast Vangelis knowledge and lists of
Pappathanassiou rarities to watch out for. Thanks again, Brad!
Paul had to go to his computer
language boot camp class one day, and he returned that night to
excitedly present to me an audio cassette he'd found of Vangelis'
L'Apocalypse Des Animaux. A song from this recording, " Creation Du
Monde," was played as a preface to each of the four movements of
Tales from Topographic Oceans during the live performances in 1974,
as Jon Anderson introduced the tunes. It was also the first Vangelis
music Jon had ever heard, the recording that caused him to seek out
and hook up with his future friend and co-creator, Vangelis. What a
find, Paul!
During the rarefied days of my stay,
we got the oil changed in the van, drank more Gewürztraminer,
and took a walk in Paul's father's neighborhood (he was housesitting
for the summer) to seek out blooming fragrant linden trees.
merry in linden
We also recorded another song
together -- the first, I hope, of more collaborative music to come
from Paul and myself. I had written "Treesong" for the preservation
of old growth forests. (I am an unabashed tree hugger and had
composed this song of solidarity for an organization called FAN, the
Forest Action Network, who are embroiled in a summer-long campaign
with Greenpeace and an indigenous tribal nation, the Nuxalk, in the
ancient coastal cedar forests of British Columbia, Canada. Together
they are blockading logging roads, chaining themselves to machinery,
hurtling legal documents and otherwise thwarting efforts to clear-cut
the ancient, sacred groves there.) An environmental music singing
team named Magpie had expressed interest in recording my song when I
sang it to them between sets at a concert they gave on Earthday in
April, 1997. I had been wishing to record the melody for them, and
being at Paul's provided that opportunity.
recording with Paul
I had never done anything remotely
like this recording in all my life and both Paul and I had fantastic
fun with it. We downloaded a photo of the forested coastal islands
from FAN's web site and taped it to the microphone.
The time I spent in Chicago served
to charge me with joy for my journey west and I arrived at an
important decision. It had taken a little while to become
reacquainted with Paul and relax enough to be able to sing. But we
were so close and comfortable toward the end of my visit that we both
cried as I was leaving. I regretted not just beginning, the moment
I'd arrived, with complete trust in my friend and a playful
willingness to indulge in full-blown, celebratory self-expression.
leaving paul's, expressing myself
with penny whistle, his tape & letter to wendy,
vangelis' oceanic cd and
l'apocalypse des animaux tape,
and my very own intellectual
property!
Normally, when you meet someone, you
both are reserved and polite, slowly allowing the other's personality
unfold at a comfortable, relaxed pace. But timid, get-acquainted
platitudes are sometimes awkward and always take time, a luxury I did
not and would not have with Paul or the others on the trip. So I
decided that I would assert the most exuberant me from the beginning
in each of the meetings with Yesfriends to follow. We all would have
so much creativity to offer one another -- I KNEW this. This uncommon
and brief time I had to myself, unhindered by kinder, would be a
perfect opportunity to have the highest time possible. I know there
were moments of my being over the top and I apologize to those of you
on the Trek and in this story who may have felt at any time
intimidated by my outward ways. I hope that reading this gives you
some understanding of why I was so energetic. I just couldn't help
not helping myself to all the untapped creative energy lying within
you all, waiting for a reason to come out to play. It became my goal
to provide you all with a reason.
wonder what idea can form this very day
that takes it's
time to wake to such a chance
a dream
these words
clearly to my
heart
to my
heart
my
merry tale ****
Day
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